Filipino Wedding Toasts: Cheers, Speeches, and Customs

Who speaks, and when

• The ninong and ninang, the principal sponsors, are honored guests and one or two may give a short word of advice to the couple.
• The best man and maid of honor give speeches, in the American style, warm and often funny.
• Parents toast, and the couple thanks everyone, often at length and with real feeling.

How long

Three to five minutes for the best man and maid of honor. Sponsors' words are a minute or two. The program is long and the host keeps it moving.

What you’ll see

• Sponsors: several pairs of ninong and ninang stand up for the couple at the ceremony and sign as witnesses.
• The money dance: guests pin bills to the couple's clothes as they dance, and the pile is counted later.
• Doves released by the couple, the lighting of a unity candle, a veil and a cord placed over the couple during the ceremony.
• Thirteen coins, the arrhae, handed from groom to bride, as in Spain.
• A long program with games, songs, and a slideshow, run by an emcee who may be a professional.

If you’re the guest from somewhere else

• Bring cash in small bills for the money dance. Pin, do not hand.
• If you are asked to speak, a warm, short speech in English is exactly right.
• 'Mabuhay' is the cheer. The room will answer.

A toast you could give

Short, warm, specific to the couple, and ending on the phrase. Swap in your own names and your own detail; the shape is what matters.

Nicole has fed every person in this room at least once, and most of us more than that. Paolo, you will never cook again, and you will never be allowed to say so. Mabuhay ang bagong kasal!